The menu: Food news with Joe McNamee

Certainly, there were vegetarian restaurants in Ireland before Café Paradiso but you’d be hard-pressed to imagine any of them being accepted into the fine dining club at the upper end of the market all of 25 years ago when it first opened. CP is one of Ireland’s finest restaurants, vegetarian or otherwise, and to celebrate its 25th year in business will be hosting events throughout 2018, all centred on the no ‘25’, beginning with a Spring Dinner (March 20), five courses for €25. (Tel. 021 427 7939/ www.paradiso.restaurant). The Market Lane restaurant group’s very excellent Chef Sessions returns with another pop-up (March 5) at their Orso restaurant, with a 9-course menu with paired drinks designed to highlight food waste, featuring lesser-used cuts of meat and native fish, more commonly exported, as well as coffee grounds and by-products from their Elbow Lane brewery. Chef Sessions allows MLG’s younger chefs to collaborate under the guidance of their Executive Chef Stephen Kehoe. Booking essential: www.orso.ie